


Home is where the heart is (so home is where she is)

by Nizza



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bakery!AU, F/M, Fluff, it will be fluffy so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 12:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nizza/pseuds/Nizza
Summary: He’s tall, wide shouldered and has rather long black hair that Rey wants to touch just to see if they really are as soft as they look. He basically looks like editorial has smacked him across the face, which means he looks jaw droppingly good and, well. Rey is really not that strong.





	Home is where the heart is (so home is where she is)

**Author's Note:**

> i couldn't find a beta, so consider yourselves warned on this. also!! leave me some kudos/comments if you liked it and want to see other parts!  
> p.s. totally snatched the dialogue about coffee from 'raising hybrid puppies'

Two minutes after Ben steps out of the airplane he is instantly reminded of why he prefers Seattle to New York; there is no buzzing like in the big city, where everyone is rushing somewhere, talking loudly on the phone, bumping into each other and not caring about spilled coffee along the way. No, there is no buzzing in the airport of Seattle, but instead there is a hum: people talking to each other in hushed voices, indie music softly playing from the cafes, no rush and definitely none of the insincere ‘’sorry!’’ thrown your away whenever someone bumps into you, because here you get a ‘’my bad, are you alright?’’ and an honest concern. Ben stands for five seconds next to a little café close to the gates, holding cup of overpriced Americano that tastes a bit better than death and finally allows himself to breathe out. Tension slowly slips out of his posture and right corner of his mouth quirks up. He’s home.

 

As usual he checks in the Mandarin Oriental and nods politely to new girl on the reception desk; apparently, Julie has been promoted to the manager two months ago and now she works from the second floor. Ben asks new girl – Claire, as written on the nametag – to let Julie know he’s here and she nods and blushes a little, when he leans closer in order to sign the papers. Ben barely manages to suppress the urge to roll his eyes, when she ‘accidentally’ brushes his hand with hers and certainly doesn’t pay attention to how she’s arching her back in a way that probably is painful just to make her breasts stand out more than they already are. Not being a foreigner to female attention, Ben learned a hard way that simple smile can be taken for an invitation and not for politeness as it usually is, so he only nods and walks away stiffly after Claire gives him key for his room. He probably needs to talk with Julie about this, because if she’s like that with any guy who’s moderately attractive then there is a problem, because this hotel is on way too higher up on scale for this. Inside his mind he can hear Julie snort and repeat ‘’moderately attractive?’’ under her breath and smiles – it’s really been a long time.

When Julie appears – just when Ben finished unpacking and after two cups of hot tea have been brought to his room - she’s wearing her favorite cardigan with pretty brooch in a form of bird that Ben gifted her. At fifty-four Julie is all friendly smiles, warm hugs and soft laughter. She calls Ben her ‘son’ and he thinks of her more as of a mother figure in her life as opposed to his biological mother. He shakes his head and stops this train of thought before it’s going to lead lead him to dark places, but instead lets Julie pull him in a hug and kisses her cheeks. She smells strongly of ink and Chanel №5, the kind of smell that Ben strongly associates with familiarity of home (if home can be a hotel in a not so popular city). Her kind eyes study him for a few moments and even though most of the times she stares right into his soul, seeing all hidden parts of himself he shows to no one, right now is just a general glance filled with longing and affection.

‘’You’ve lost quiet a bit of weight,’’ she notes and disapproval is evident in her voice. ‘’This job of yours pays you well, but you’re overworking yourself.’’ Julie smiles and gently cradles his hand in hers where they sit on the sofa. ‘’But oh, darling, I’m so glad to see you. It’s been too long.’’

Ben nods in agreement. It truly has been too long: last time he was in Seattle three years ago and only for a couple of hours, he couldn’t even stop by at the hotel and meet with Julie. He often gets send on ‘’clear up’’ mission to different cities and fortunately enough some company from Seattle finally required his assistance. With the nature of his job, Ben rarely can afford to fly around the country whenever he likes, so visiting Julie apart from work is a hard thing to do; he’s always drowning in papers, evaluations, board meetings and dealing with clients. A good night of sleep is not something he gets on a daily basis.

‘’Two days,’’ he answers, when Julie asks him how many days he’s planning to stay. ‘’Tomorrow I have few meetings with clients and for the rest of the day I’ll be in the firm, evaluating. But I do plan on taking you out for a dinner, so make no reservations for seven p.m.’’

Julie smiles and squeezes his hand tighter. Her eyes look suspiciously moist and Ben has never been good with emotions like that and does his best to pretend in not seeing it while handing her his handkerchief. They spend next hour catching up with Julie doing most of the talking and Ben being content to just listen. In moments like that, with her sitting in front of him and laughing quietly at her own story, Ben feels more at home than he ever does in his loft studio in New York. Julie wraps her warmth and affection around him like a blanket and he clutches on it with his all might, holding it close and letting himself soak in those moments.

‘’I’m so glad to be back,’’ he lets out, staring out of the window on the dark sky without a single star on it. ‘’It’s ridiculous, but I found home in this hotel room.’’

When he turns to Julie, he’s not prepared for the pity in her gaze and his heart aches a little at that. His own stoic mask of indifference doesn’t break only thanks to all the years he had to practice it stay put no matter what. She shakes her head and lightly pats his hand before standing up.

‘’We’re out of your favorite biscuits, but we take them from the little bakery on the corner of the street and they are still open if you want them now, but I’ll have them delivered to you in the morning anyway. I’ll go now, my boy. You should rest.’’

He also stands, ignores pang in his chest on the thought of being alone in the room and holds the door for her, while she kisses him in both cheeks. She hovers, hesitates and then finally says: ‘’Darling, don’t forget that home should not be found in places. It’s in the people.’’

Ben swallows and nods, eyes trained on her small form till she disappears in the elevator. The change in the room without Julie is striking: it’s like she took all the light and warmth with her when she walked away. The general stillness of the atmosphere creeps on Ben and claws at his heart, widening hole that’s already there – loneliness never really goes away. Without thinking twice, he grabs his coat, keys and flees out of the cold and lifeless room, desperate to get away.

 

Rey is going to kill Poe. She will stab him with the knife repeatedly and then donate his blood to the hospitals, because there it will be more useful than it is right now: pumping through his very much alive – and regretfully so – body.

‘’You know, I watched enough of criminal tv shows to know how to make your death look like an accident,’’ she says nonchalantly, swiping table. ‘’And if you think that I won’t kill you because you never give me day offs then well, you certainly think too highly of me.’’

And Poe, that fucker, has an audacity to actually chuckle. ‘’I am the sole reason this place even has customers.’’

And Rey hates how she can’t argue with that. Poe is as charming, as he is insufferable and that it _a lot_. She still doesn’t understand how he manages to look actually cheerful at the ungodly hour of six am, which is the time their shift starts. Even if it pains her, Rey still can admit that Poe _is_ exceptionally good with customers: he is friendly, always makes a small talk while taking the order and never fails to make any person laugh or at least smile in spare of few minutes. How he manages to do that is way beyond Rey and that is exactly the reason why she never stands behind the counter and instead always bakes something in a little kitchen with a minimum of human interaction. It’s not that her communication skills are the same ones that a trashcan possesses, Rey tells herself. She’s just not a morning person and getting an answer from her that isn’t ‘’ugh’’ before ten am is impossible. Besides, she can never be on Poe’s level: some people _actually_ come to bakery just to talk to him, because they wanted to see him and well. Rey was never popular.

‘’Not all customers come for you, you know.’’ Of course it’s a lie and judging by how Poe raises his eyebrows, he knows it too. He is very very -

‘’They come here because seeing me first thing in the morning raises productivity and dopamine level in their blood by fifty percent.’’

\- self-centered, arrogant and narcissistic. Rey will most definitely strangle him with the towel. ‘’Seeing you first thing in the morning promises me headache and lowers my already low tolerance level to the dangerous number.’’

‘’Is that your way of saying that I drive you crazy?’’

Before Rey can reply Poe has her in a headlock and laughs at her fruitless attempts to set herself free. He loudly kisses her on the forehead and she retaliates by elbowing him hard on the ribs, trying not to grin. ‘’Don’t worry sunshine, I may be the treasure of this bakery, but without your best cookies and cakes even my charms wouldn’t have saved this place.’’

She feels familiar tingling in her whole body at praise and smiles, looking down. Even at the foster home she had sneaked to the kitchens and helped with anything she could, so ending up in the bakery wasn’t exactly a surprise for her. Rey knows she’s good and has been told that by many people, yet every single time she hears this compliment it still feels like the first time. She always wished to be good, maybe even the best, at something and the fact that she found her own thing makes her heart swell with pride. Her gaze saunters to two plates with biscuits freshly out of the oven just at time when Finn makes grabby hands at them.

‘’Don’t you dare!’’ She screams but he steals one scone anyway and quickly rushes to the exit, waving goodbyes to Poe and Rey.

‘’Rose is late,’’ Poe notes and lets Rey go, but not without affectionately ruffling her hair and making it even messier. ‘’Alright, I’m done here and stop with these puppy eyes, you’re not getting a day off this week, period. Why do you even need a day off anyway? Not like you actually have a life- ouch.’’ He shoots Rey offended look and dramatically blows on the place where she’s bitten him. Being an A+ drama queen is definitely somewhere on Poe’s resume. ‘’I have a date and you’re just going to binge stupid TV shows, therefore my date is obviously more important. You’ll get one day off on the other week, I promise.’’

‘’You have a date every other week.’’ Rey grumbles, watching her pain in the ass boss/friend button up his coat. ‘’And you never keep your promises, asshole.’’

‘’Careful there! You know me so well, I might just think that you’re in love with me,’’ Poe winks and despite everything Rey can’t help but smile and wave back, when he goes away.

Mere glance at the clock confirms her suspicion: it’s almost ten and Rose is late for already twenty minutes. Her homeless friend is never one to be late, but Rey pushes down wave of anxiety and takes few deep breaths. _Nothing happened_ , she thinks to herself, _What possibly can happen?_ Her mind immediately answers that question by sending various scenarios in her mind and all of them make blood freeze in her veins. Rose is not exactly Rey’s best friend, but she feels illogical sense of responsibility for that small girl, who is stronger than anyone she’s ever met in life and just the thought of something bad happening to her makes Rey sick. She wipes last table and busies herself on the counter, deciding to wait for at least one hour more for Rose and only then go home. Logical side of her brain helpfully supplies that Rose can have her own things or may have just forgotten to come, but it does nothing to ease the tension. Rey sighs. ‘’El forn’’ is deadly quiet without loud Poe and always humming something under his breath Finn. Rey often nags them to tone it down a notch, but whenever they’re gone she immediately misses all the noise and reckless energy they bring with themselves. She starts drying dishes and has hands full of glasses and towel when bell rings, announcing arrival of a customer.

‘’Finally, Rose, I thought-‘’ Rey abruptly stops, when instead of her tiny friend she sees a man who is anything _but_ tiny.

The reason why Rey is hunched in the kitchen and not behind the counter is not only because she’s a great baker, but also because Rey is _really bad_ with customers. She gets nervous and when someone takes a long time choosing a treat she gets snappy and that’s just a recipe for a potential disaster, so she never takes orders.

‘’Um,’’ she lets out very intelligently. ‘’I’m sorry, we’re not open.’’

The man looks up and Rey has to gather her all will power to not let her jaw meet with the floor. If Finn were here, he’d call this man his wet dream and Rey would absolutely agree. He’s tall, wide shouldered and has rather long black hair that Rey wants to touch just to see if they really are as soft as they look. He basically looks like editorial has smacked him across the face, which means he looks jaw droppingly good and, well. Rey is really not that strong. She waits for him to turn back because she did say that they are not open, but instead he strides purposefully and stops right in front of her, his gaze fixed on the menu from his left.

‘’Where do you source the blends?’’ He asks without looking up.

Rey feels her pulse spike. She knows this, doesn’t she? Finn always talks about this place, but Finn generally talks a lot and she learned to filter his speech and listen to only important matters and nod and make uncommitted noises of ‘’uhm’’ at everything else. Apparently, her brain did not consider region where they source the blends important, because Rey has absolutely no idea what to say.

‘’Uh, locally,’’ she replies and he wrinkles his nose at that.

Something stirs in Rey’s heart, something close to anger. Finn is very proud of their blends, he turns them into original coffee and customers love it. Protectiveness swells in her chest; to have some stranger come up and show mere disgust over the subject that her friend is so clearly proud of is unacceptable. She opens her mouth to voice out her opinion, when his gaze turns to the biscuits on the plate.

‘’Throw ten of this on the go.’’ His voice is distant, cold, he’s still not looking up and Rey may not be the best with customers, but they are not supposed to actually _command_ , right?

‘’They’re reserved.’’ She cuts and _that_ gets his attention. His head shoots up and he arches a dubious eyebrow at her.

‘’Reserved.’’ He repeats slowly and she nods. ‘’You can cancel the reservation, then.’’

Rey opens her mouth to protest but everything what she was going to say dies in her throat when he puts a two hundred dollar bill on the counter. She blinks and he moves closer to the biscuits, looking at them apprehensively. Bills on the counter practically sing for her to take them, which is really her foster home side speaking. She never had much money and always scrambled for the last cent she could have, but this is not the option right now. _Old habits die hard_ , Luke liked to say.

‘’Take this money, sir. These scones are not for sale.’’ She manages to let out through her gritted teeth. Luke told her it’s rude to talk like that with customers, but Rey has never been good with manners and he’s not exactly a poster like customer either.

‘’Why?’’

‘’I told you, they are reserved.’’

‘’No, they are not.’’ He says and points at the money.

Fuck manners, Rey is going to punch him and break his admittedly attractive nose.

‘’Yes, they are.’’

He stares at her for what it feels like a lifetime; eyes narrowed, gaze piercing in a way that she cannot describe. He makes her feel small and vulnerable and those are two things Rey hates the most, because they remind her of many nights crying herself to sleep at foster home and she’s _not a kid_ anymore. No one will make her feel like that and go away with it, she vowed. It’s like a silent challenge and Rey refuses to back down from it; standing as an object to scrutiny of this man, she holds his gaze steadily until from annoyed it turns into… appreciative?

‘’You’re not going to sell them to me,’’ He concludes, regarding her with obvious interest and bewilderment now. ‘’Even though I’m willing to pay probably ten times more of the actual price of these scones.’’

‘’As I said before, they are reserved.’’

There is a slight amusement in his tone, when he says: ‘’Very well.’’ and for a second Rey feels like she’s passed some test and wants to preen.

He turns and walks away, sound of his footsteps bounces of the walls and echoes in the small place. Rey doesn’t blink, turn or look away, too afraid to miss something important for reasons she can’t even comprehend. Man stops next to the door and turns to her.

‘’Does this bakery deliver to Mandarin Oriental their cakes and biscuits?’’ This question catches her off guard and she only nods. ‘’I’d like ten of chocolate flavored scones with nuts by ten o’clock. Don’t use wheat, but oatmeal with baking powder instead and whip-‘’

‘’I’m aware of how scones are made!’’ Rey interrupts hotly. ‘’I make the best biscuits in downtown and-‘’ is it her paranoia or does he look amused? He finds this _funny_?

‘’We’ll see about it tomorrow.’’ His voice cuts through her like a knife through butter; no one should be allowed to have a voice like that. Nice, with this soft rumble that makes you want to pay attention. ‘’By ten o’clock, sharp.’’

Rey knows this person for whole five minutes and yet she’s already sure he has some kind of authoritative kink, because he apparently can’t speak without making it sound like he’s giving out an order or a command.

‘’I believe there is a ‘’ _please_ ’’ somewhere there, but I haven’t heard it so far.’’ She says and oh, now he definitely looks amused.

‘’I’m sure I should be addressed as ‘’ _sir_ ’’ by you and yet.’’

Rey saunters through life doing a lot of things impulsively and they never turn out good. Poe says she’ll never learn and Rey silent agrees, because ignoring impulses is way too hard. Like right now, for example. She grabs two hundred dollar bills and storms in his direction, thrusting them in his surprised face. For a weird reason it feels really good to make him change his expression, because she has a gut feeling that not many people can do that.

‘’Chocolate flavored scones with nuts on oatmeal with baking powder will be waiting for you at ten o’clock sharp tomorrow.’’ And because she’s polite and nice, she adds, her voice dripping with sarcasm: ‘’ _Sir_.’’

He regards her silently for a moment and Rey is very aware of her loudly beating heart and for a second she’s afraid he hears it too, but then he does something that sends her stomach doing backflips; he smiles. Not with a wide, open smile, but with a small, but sincere one, which changes his whole demeanor, making it only even more attractive and Rey is so so fucked.

‘’Till tomorrow.’’ He says and pushes the door, walking away.

Rey stares at the empty space where he stood for few more seconds before she shakes her head and walks back to the counter, trying to calm her racing heart. Nothing extraordinary have happened and there is no justification her erratically beating heart and yet. By the time Rose arrived Rey got herself under control, but still spilled everything to her friend, while making her coffee.

‘’You could have given him those scones, Rey.’’ Rose says, carefully blowing on her cup. ‘’It’s not like you’re also swimming in cash.’’

Rey shakes her head. ‘’It’s the principle of it. They are yours and I wouldn’t have given them to some guy and let you be hungry.’’

‘’You could have given him those biscuits, taken those two hundred bills and given them to me, then. Two hundred dollars will help me last for two weeks.’’

‘’I… haven’t thought about that.’’ Rey frowns and suddenly feels herself so stupid.

Of course she should have taken the money! For two hundred dollars Rose could have eaten three times a day and not just one as she usually does. Or she could have bought herself a good coat that will keep her warm when winter comes. Or she could have-

‘’Rey.’’ She blinks and finds Rose next to her, smiling softly. ‘’It’s alright, I’m not mad or anything. You look like you’re about to cry.’’

‘’I’m so sorry,’’ Rey chokes out, gripping towel in her hands. ‘’I was so stupid, I didn’t even think that -‘’

Rose jumps out of the chair and rushes to the other girl, hugging her close. ‘’It’s fine. I know why you did it and honestly, that’s such a Rey thing to do. It’s fine, it’s fine. You always cook me biscuits and bread, let me stay here when it’s snowing or raining outside and I couldn’t have been luckier to have you as my friend. You and Poe, and even Finn. I’m so lucky to have you all.’’

‘’But you love me the most, right?’’ Rey asks, letting her friend go. ‘’My biscuits are the best, right?’’

Rose rolls her eyes but she’s smiling and that’s what matter the most. ‘’Yeah, your biscuits are the best. And that’s what that guy will also think so. Now tell me about him in a detail, so I could tell Poe everything when he comes to his morning shift tomorrow.’’


End file.
